Book Review: THE OTHER SIDE by Terry Tyler

Published: May 16, 2012

Format: ebook (310 pages)

Origin: Author

***Though the author provides the free ebook, I offer the opinion.***

My Look:

Meet Katya . . . 

At forty, unmarried, the manager of a trendy shop in London, and a somewhat journalist is seeking to have it all, in a mate.  

Katya Fox has reached what she conceives as the pinnacle of her career, but she wants more for her love life.  Sticking with her list she made in University has proven hard and has taken her out of her way at times, but she is got most of it ironed out, minus several faulty relationships.  However, once a friend tries to hook up Katya with a van driver, she can only see the faults in this matching.  Just because she hasn’t met anyone who meets her standards doesn’t mean she doesn’t have them.  What if . . .  

Meet Cathy . . .

Waking up on weigh-in Wednesday, Cathy opts for a dress hoping for less showing weight.  A few other women in her group would watch her weight gain after marriage with interest. However, Cathy’s marriage to Andy Froud had moved from a close family unit to a toxic relationship with the wealthy Froud family.  

Toxicity weaves into every family member in everyone else’s business and boredom from usual routines that included all Frouds in the grouping didn’t make it any easier either.  What if . . .

Meet Alexa . . .

Okay, it wasn’t the first time Alexa knew she hated Janey Hetherington, and it wasn’t the last time that she was angry because no one else saw she wanted Alexa’s life.

How did everyone miss it?

Alexa was happy with herself and her life before this woman seemed to force herself into everything.  She was always needing to see or talk to her husband Charlie, boo-hooing and all that while trying to run a business that wouldn’t have made it here before her boyfriend ditched her, necessitating Alexa’s best friend to sooth her too.  

Really, did she have to work at Alexa’s and Charlie’s establishment now?  Could these people actually want Janey to have her life? What if . . . 

Meet Sandy . . .

She stayed at the near commune living house even after Toby left her and drank even heavier. The plan suited her just fine.  It took some time for her to hook up with a left over from the hippie 1960′s.  It wasn’t planned, actually.  Soon, it was considered a relationship of sorts and generally accepted by all in the house but generally not questioned by even Sandy herself. However, on some mornings, Sandy knew she had to get out.  But how?  

Over forty, out of work for like years, and with low-end skills, how could she get out?  

What if . . . 

 

My Take:

THE OTHER SIDE by Terry Tyler begins as a snapshot of each life being lived but later chapters will complete the portrait!

I enjoyed many of these characters, some I could understand while others I would recoil, but I had to see this read through to a surprise ending.

You’ll find some past culture myths like the 1980′s one of have it all, painted in a place where all didn’t seem to be available.  And you discover the later version of the 1960′s easy going communal tide turned from free love to free loaders.  In this read, you’ll watch some good things become a bad turn, some bad things have a better turnabout, and some impossible things never materialize.

THE OTHER SIDE by Terry Tyler is standalone title, but it will leave you searching for this author’s work.  Check out Terry Tyler’s books, YOU WISH . . . (2011), NOBODY’S FAULT (2012), DREAM ON (2012), FULL CIRCLE (2013). 

Book Review: DEFENDING THE DUCHESS by Rachelle McCalla

Publisher: Love Inspired Suspense  

Published: March 5, 2013

Format: Paperback (224 pages)      

ISBN: 9780373445301         

Series: Protecting the Crown

Origin: Publisher through NetGalley (egalley)

***Though the publisher provides the free book, I offer the opinion.***

My Look:

Julia Miller isn’t used to living in a palace, in a foreign land, and she certainly isn’t used to a bodyguard.  

The country of Lydia’s dangerous recent history left their queen not looking all that well in the aftermath.  Leaving her law practice behind to help her sister, now Queen Monica, Julia just needed something to feel normal.  She desired a jog without her handsome bodyguard, Linus Murati.  

However, the last thing this sibling wanted was to bring her sister more trouble, but trouble followed Julia here.

Running to catch up with the future Duchess, Linus wondered what part about an evening in translated into an unsecured jaunt?  A stealthy lawyer from the States, whom could be putting herself in danger, was outrunning this highly trained Royal Guard member. 

Albeit Linus understood her newness to the problems associated with being royalty, he also has seen way too much to believe she’ll be fine on her own.  Their last menace came from inside the palace walls, but there still could be outsiders connected to the dangers that have yet to be discovered.  If it weren’t so worrisome, it would be amusing to watch this woman out pace him and everyone else.  

Finally, he realized, she heard him calling.  

For him, it was just the luck of her running in sand that slowed her enough for him to even get close.  However, he wasn’t close enough to stop a man from kidnapping her.  

She was moved inside a bluff, being carried by masked man who had come from behind her.  

My Take:

In DEFENDING THE DUCHESS, Rachelle McCalla adds suspense and sprinkles it with romance in just the right measure! 

Julia Miller is a heroine who tries hard at being strong.  To her, sometimes strength involves keeping secrets, and those secrets can be costly.  Her coming to Lydia was to help her sister but maybe it also was to keep her troubles at bay.  

In the meantime, the bodyguard of the duchess, Linus Murati, doesn’t need to run outside the palace walls.  The confines of the palace contain his race.  His superior is aware, but the royal family must never know.  He wishes that he can run from is his young, not so clean past, but at every turn it seems to snag him, again.  

Rachelle McCalla’s DEFENDING THE DUCHESS is a standalone title. However, you’ll want to read more of this author’s work in PRINCESS IN PERIL (Love Inspired Suspense 2011), PROTECTING THE PRINCESS (Love Inspired Suspense 2012), PRINCE INCOGNITO (Love Inspired Suspense 2012), THE MISSING MONARCH (Love Inspired Suspense 2012), and A ROYAL MARRIAGE (LOVE INSPIRED HISTORICALS 2012).  ROYAL HEIST and THE SECRET PRINCESS will release later in 2013! 

 

Book Review: THE DESERT SHEIKH (Trilogy) by Katheryn Lane

Published: January 18, 2013

Format: ebook (154 pages)

Origin: Author

***Though the author provides the free ebook, I offer the opinion.***

My Look:

Book One: KIDNAPPED BY THE SHEIKH . . .

Who could have known that simple automobile troubles would lead Dr. Sarah Greenwich into more than inconvenience and another bill to pay?  It is a dose of perfect luck that the British Ambassador’s driver, whom she is friendly with, happens by and provides a lift.  However, this is exactly where all of her troubles really begin. 

Crews of armed men line the road in the desert, and because of the car, they identify her wrongly.   To save the friendly man, who drove her, she goes along with the kidnapper’s assumption and goes willingly with the kidnappers, hoping her future will turn out like many others’ pasts.  Once the money is paid, she is released, no harm done.  However, she can’t forget her real identity or the fear of what will happen once they find out she’s not whom she says.  It’s even harder to forget about the Sheikh and the emotions he stirs.

 

Book Two: MARRIED TO THE SHEIKH . . .

The handsome Sheikh and Sarah cement their love, after he arranges for Dr. Sarah Greenwich’s escape into safety, which came after she had fallen in love with him.  

For a short time, Sarah and her Sheikh husband are blissful.  However, what should be the best time in he life quickly spirals into a mess.  Yes, her husband is a powerful warlord, but he is working hard to bring the region together, peacefully.  Her employer doesn’t understand or care.  They want her gone, and her husband wants her medical expertise for his people in the desert instead.  

Can she accept his culture, his demands, and her lost position? Will he accept her need to help people, work outside of the desert, and her background that is not like his?

 

Book Three: THE SHEIKH’S SON . . .  

This Sheikh’s son has spent nine years in London with his Mum.  He’s been bullied, teased and harassed because who he is and who is missing from his life.  She wants so much more for her son, Ali. 

His Mum is probably the only still married, non-widowed, single mum she knows.  Working in the medical field gives her less time with him and more time without him.  Romance for her died a long time ago, and a father figure for him never existed.  Once someone knocks on her door, she’s about to be weighted down by major emotions and lots of questions.

Does her child have the uncanny ability to bring parents together?  Does he have the best of his mum and the best of his dad to make them give their love another try?  As much as she loves his father, will the whole new relationship hurt her son?

My Take:

THE DESERT SHEIKH (TRILOGY) by Katheryn Lane begins with a hint of mystery, blends in a huge dose of romance, but keeps true reality intruding on these characters!

I enjoyed learning culture and watching these lovers blossom, but I worried over the original relationship pitfalls that plague this exotic location.   Watching the highs and lows of these two characters kept the pages turning, but it was the couple’s trials that kept me invested in this read and pulling for these two to work out.   

Katheryn Lane’s THE DESERT SHEIKH TRILOGY will leave you looking forward to more of her titles such as THE SHEIKH’S BELOVED (Books 1 and 2) and HER LATIN LOVER!  For more information about this author, feel free to check out her blog at http://Katheryn-Lane.blogspot.com or check her out on Goodreads at http://www.goodreads.com/author/KatherynLane

Book Review: IMPULSE (FACES OF EVIL) by Debra Webb

Publisher: Forever (Grand Central Publishing imprint of Hachette Book Group)

Published: March 26, 2013

Format: Paperback (268 pages)

Series: Faces of Evil Series

Origin: Publisher through NetGalley, (eGalley) 

***Though the publisher provides the free ebook, I offer the opinion.***

My Look:

FBI Profile Agent Jess Harris is returning to Birmingham, although she’s coming back with her tail between her legs.  

In her last case, she was disgraced, played a fool, and more doubts about the motive behind her mistakes are about to surface.  Unfortunately, the good rapport she had with supervisor, Gant seems strained beyond repair in the FBI, and a new relationship with an old flame, soon to be new boss, might mix business with pleasure only to create more career decreasing issues.  

However, Jess Harris and her problems are really just only beginning.

One of the main suspects of her last case, Eric Spears, has been cleared and is considering filing charges against her.  His claims are coming up startling true when nothing is the truth. And no matter how many times the FBI insists Eric Spears is not the sadistic murderer known as the Player, Jess knows that he is exactly that, until the murders begin here in Birmingham and Spears whereabouts is confirmed to be miles and miles away.  

Now, everything Jess knew she is calling into to question, and she chooses to not get fired by the FBI.  Instead, she resigns, accepts her former lover’s proffered position in the Birmingham Police Department—despite the eye stares the rest of the BPD is throwing her way. This department needs her profiling skills, and a new friend from the force needs her help. The Player has taken Detective Lori Wells, and the investigation has grown to include a joint task force of the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, complicating the already complicated relationships further.  

Once another woman is discovered tortured and barely alive, Jess knows exactly what will happen to her friend, Detective Wells.  

However, the next victim could have been Jess’s sister or her niece, and she can’t get them to leave town even after another woman’s dead body is discovered.   Jess is becoming increasingly fearful the Player will kill all the people in her life.  

Should she leave to keep them safe?  Or should she stay to help bring down this sicko?

 

My Take:

IMPULSE (Faces of Evil series) by Debra Webb is a thrilling read!

Debra Webb has created characters you’d love to get to know, combined them into a story that don’t quit, but adds more twists than the reader will ever think of.   I did enjoy getting to know Jess Harris and her old flame, Police Chief Dan Burnett.  These two go through periods of pulling away and betraying their logic by getting closer, but it’s the ending where they maybe figure out a logical way together.  Maybe.

However, I must give a warning.  This read contains much graphic, gratuitous violence perpetrated by the most perverse, sadomasochistic killer.

Debra Webb’s IMPULSE (FACES of Evil series) is a standalone novel that will keep you up late nights and have you wonder about the person standing beside you on the bus the very next day.  Meanwhile, you will hurry to get the other books in the Faces of Evil Series including OBSESSION (Forever 2013), POWER (Forever 2013) until the new series books are published later this year titled RAGE (Forever 2013), REVENGE (Forever 2013), and RUTHLESS (Forever 2013).  

Book Review: THE MILLIONAIRE’S WIFE by Cathy Scott

Publisher: St. Martin’s True Crime

Published: March 27, 2012

Format: Paperback (256 pages)

ISBN: 9780312594350

Origin: Author

***Though the author provides the free book, I offer the opinion.***

My Look:

Walking back to his Upper East Side apartment in New York City, George Kogan didn’t know what hit him.  Quickly, he became sure it was indeed fatal.

George Kogan led a life that many could dream about, but he also led a life that was dubious with business and business connections.  With two children, a faithful wife, and many successful businesses, how did his life turn bad enough that murder was the opted choice?  

Who did it and why?

Although there could have been many suspects and many reasons, the one reason that sticks out for police is the one odds-on favorite.  The jilted wife.  

Man and wife were in the middle of a bitter divorce battle because George Kogan chose a younger woman who worked for his wife.  Thus, this also is the inside story of how Barbara Kogan became heartbroken, bitter, and mentally unstable.  Her children were young adults, both boys, and she leaned emotionally heavy on one child to get her through it.  William tried to bridge the gap between two parents.  Could he?

Unfortunately, he never did get to find out.

George Kogan was gunned down in broad daylight on just the morning he was to speak with William to hammer out a divorce agreement that would bring his mother an amicable divorce close and begin to heal the divide between the father and son’s relationship.  This settlement didn’t happen.  William’s mother grows more unstable and the police grow more suspicious.  

How long does it take to solve this crime?

Solving a case like this can take many twists, ending up in many places, taking even more turns than a mystery novel, and monopolizing many more days than anyone would dream, but when the end comes, there may be many questions left unanswered and many suspects never fully known.  However, there also could be many more questions just beginning with the ending.

My Take:

THE MILLIONAIRE’S WIFE: The True Story of a Real Estate Tycoon, his Beautiful Young Mistress, and a Marriage that Ended in Murder by Cathy Scott will keep you in suspense!

Inside the investigation, you’ll find nuggets of information, jewels of facts, and thorns of guilt.  You’ll even find many unsavory characters and questions on the deceased character traits and behaviors during life.  However, the real questions you’ll discover will be about motive, opportunity, and the odds of the police being right.  As the reader is a latecomer to this investigation, the author will bring you up-to-speed in how this all played out and if the case makes sense.  You won’t put the book down, when other people come into the equation and deny activity, but the reader will wonder about plea deals and testimony, and whether justice is really justice.   

Apparently, no one but the lawyers could see the end and some didn’t seem to fully understand why this ending arrived. 

Cathy Scott’s true crime writing is thorough and will bring you right into the investigation, family, lawyers, trial, and questions.  While you await her newest project, I’m sure you’ll want to read this author’s other true crime works—A KILLER IN OUR MIDST (True Crime Short 2011), TUPAC: THE LEGEND LIVES ON (Crime Short 2011), THE KILLING OF TUPAC SHAKUR (Plexus 2008), THE MURDER OF A MAFIA DAUGHTER: THE LIFE AND TRAGIC DEATH OF SUSAN BERMAN (Barricade Books 2002),  DEATH IN THE DESERT: THE TED BINION HOMICIDE CASE  (AuthorHouse 2001), THE MURDER OF BIGGIE SMALLS (St. Martin’s Press 2000)!

Book Review: LUCKY STIFF by Annelise Ryan

Publisher: Kensington

Published: March 05, 2013

Format: 384 pages

ISBN: 9780758272751  

Series: Mattie Winston Mysteries

Origin: Publisher 

***Though the publisher provides the free book, I offer the opinion.***

My Look:

Death Investigator, Mattie Winston, arrives on scene to find she knew this victim from her former career.

More than once, she helped heal this paraplegic man only to find herself bent over his burnt body, collecting evidence in an arson and murder investigation of her former patient, Jack Allen.  

She hadn’t left her last career to help the living due to burnout or the need for a change, she left her career as an operating room nurse because of her former husband.  He is a surgeon in the same hospital, the same OR, who liked to play with their female coworkers while she and he were married.  

Taking in the scene with detective Hurley—a man who she wants and who seems to want her but each has a job that must keep them apart—Mattie learns that Jack Allen had recently struck it big in the local casino, and his jackpot wasn’t kept in a bank.  In fact, it was kept in this burnt out home. Making matters worse, many people knew of his winnings and the large sums of house money leads to an assumption of motive.         

Jack Allen’s open wallet policy only serves to multiply suspects to include neighbors, friends, and a girlfriend—just to start.  However, their suspect list grows to include casino workers, drinking buddies, caregivers, family, and everyone who had been in contact with Jack Allen, since he won the money.  As if this one case isn’t enough to keep the police and medical examiner’s office busy, a floater turns up and something that should have been an easy case turns into something more sinister.  

Meanwhile, Mattie meets up with her ex—who is involved with their real estate agent when Hurley gives her an electrifying kiss, and she’s about to gamble with her future, when her boss becomes suspicious about Mattie and Hurley.

My Take:

In LUCKY STIFF, Annelise Ryan successfully blends mystery, autopsies, and romantic notions into a cozy that you can’t put down!    

Mattie Winston delves deep into death and investigates crime, but she still finds time for the romance she can’t have and the ex she can’t seem to rid herself of.  Mattie’s humor is a way to deal with her increasingly complicated life and competing desires, but she is finding her way through life one disaster at a time. 

A standalone novel, LUCKY STIFF by Annelise Ryan will have you learn crime scene investigation, medical examination, and investigation principles, while keeping you wrapped in her characters personal lives. I’m sure you’ll want to catch this author’s other Mattie Winston titles including, FROZEN STIFF (Kensington 2012), SCARED STIFF (Kensington 2011), and WORKING STIFF (Kensington 2010).

Book Review: IMAGES OF BETRAYAL by Claire Collins

Publisher: Second Wind Press LLC

Published: August 22, 2008

Format: Paperback (256 pages)  

Origin: Author Recommendation 

***Though others provide the free ebook, I offer the opinion.***

My Look:

The teen year pressures for Tysan Reynolds should be about what boy she’s dating, what she’s wearing to the prom, and who is taking her to their prom, but Tysan’s reality is far from what other teens are living.  

In the middle of her parent’s divorce, Tysan is used as a pawn to a mother who wants her husband to pay and a father who can’t handle the pressure.  Forced to leave her school and work full-time, just to keep a roof over her head, Tysan is employed at a diner. While pursuing another relationship, her dad leaves his daughter and calls to say he’s not coming back. However, Tysan has made some friends during her employment, and she even has a woman whom often tries to be a stand-in mom.  

Soon, she meets a man who has the ability to change her life.

Walker is a young, fairly handsome man who seems to show up at the right time. He talks to Tysan and leaves her wondering about him.  She goes about her life, in the meantime, but he seems to still pop-up.   She’s ready for a Walker in her life, maybe.  However, she isn’t ready for everything he shows her.

Realization dawns and she knows that he is telling the truth about taking pictures of her at school.  In fact, she does remember seeing him.  However, can she believe her missing portrait?  

Does he really know what is in store for her?  Can an object tell the future?   Are his pictures really worth a thousand foretold words? 

Who is this mystery man walking around flashing photos of destruction? 

 

My Take:

IMAGES OF BETRAYAL by Claire Collins is a mystery that will keep you reading with a touch of paranormal that will keep you believing!

I admired Tysan’s strength and her maturity that scoped beyond her years.  An understanding of her bad circumstances mixing with the thought of her finding love, led me think everything would seem to be okay in the end, until the man in her life goes beyond a mystery.   This mystery grabs hold of Tysan and the reader, but the end is something neither would see coming.  

Claire Collins penned a standalone novel in IMAGES OF BETRAYAL that will leave you wanting to read her other title: FATE AND DESTINY (Second Wind Press 2009)!

Book Review: THE GOOD LIFE by Susan Kietzman

Publisher: Kensington

Published: February 26, 2013

Format: Paperback (352 pages)

ISBN: 9780758281326

Origin: Publisher through NetGalley (eGalley)

***Though the publisher provides the free book, I offer the opinion.***

My Look:

The Barons have a plush life, and this mode of living has many perks and complications.  

Mike is a CEO, both handsome and powerful; he lives to work and enjoys the chase of making money.  Ann enjoys the drink, basks in the limelight of their status, gloats over others’ lack of status, and gives their children everything money can buy.  

Meanwhile, Nate resents his mother, since Ann thinks she can buy love and denies him what he wants most—time.  Mike does try to make time for him, but when Mike can’t do it, Nate doesn’t let his father off easy either.  On the other hand, Lauren understands her father is a busy man, and for the most part she’s okay with that.  Lauren, oftentimes, feels like she’s little more than a duty to be dropped off and picked up, and she doesn’t miss that her mother no longer spends time with her.  Ann doesn’t even attend her games.  In fact, Lauren finds herself envying those of her peers whom are putting up with meddling mothers, overprotective fathers, and siblings who constantly tag along.  Her peers tell her she’s the lucky one.  But is she?

Soon, this dysfunctional family dynamic gets an injection of family values and a lesson in what being a family really means, when Ann’s parents ask to live with them.

Due to Ann’s aging father’s illness, her mother claims she cannot care for him, but she must wait for an opening in the assisted living facility.  At first, Ann thinks her mother, Eileen, is being dramatic—as is her nature, but she quickly realizes that his mental abilities are diminished.  After attempting to solve the problem by throwing some money at it, Ann is faced with having them move in.  

However, Ann has a plan to minimize the interruption to their lives and Mike agrees, since Ann will be handling most of the problems and facing most of the interruptions.  After redecorating the guesthouse, Ann places her parents there with a nurse.  

Will this living arrangement take a problematic turn?

 

My Take:

In THE GOOD LIFE by Susan Kietzman, you’ll find a family in turmoil before the living arrangement ever comes into play. Hiding behind wealth and status can lie insecurities, failures, alcoholism, eating disorders, dysfunction, and distorted egos.  

I found characters with a sense of dislike at the life that some love and a dislike for themselves while living it.  At first, I understood Ann, having to come to terms with sick parents and problems that money can’t fix, but soon I found myself relating to Mike.  Although, he likes to work and make money, he recognized Ann’s parents’ issues and tried his best to help. However, I fell in love with Nate and Lauren, as they fell in love with their grandparents.  

A standalone novel, THE GOOD LIFE by Susan Kietzman will leave you hoping for another read from this author.

Book Review: THERE ONCE LIVED A GIRL WHO SEDUCED HER SISTER’S HUSBAND, AND HE HANGED HIMSELF

by: Ludmilla Petrushevskaya

Publisher: Penguin Books

Published: January 29, 2013

Format: Paperback (192 pages)

ISBN: 9780143121527  

Origin: Publisher 

***Though the publisher provides the free book, I offer the opinion.***

My Look:

In this book of romance stories, told from a macabre perspective, you find some less than happy representations of love, love gone awry, and unrequited love, just in time for Valentine’s day . . .

In A MURKY FATE, a woman is lonely and tired of not being able to brag about a man in her life. She takes a man from her office home—who is already married—and is overjoyed at telling people she is in a relationship. Though, it was hardly ever one.

THE TWO DEITIES introduces Evginia, an unmarried woman, who at thirty-five has an office tryst with a twenty-year-old male. Their one night resulted in a son. With the death of her grandmother, Evginia keeps the baby. Though she never marries the father, he visits his child. His family history is one of poverty and alcoholism, but he finishes his schooling. Eventually, they live as a family and the father abuses his alcohol.

In the story of CLARISSA, this woman thinks people are talking about her, although most are not. She marries but grows tired of her distant husband. Soon, she marries again and had a child. However, her husband drinks, cheats, and is abusive. But when her husband leaves her taking the child, she roamed and ranted before disappearing. She returned—divorced with a child, but her problems continue.

She finds another husband, a pilot, and she had another child. Nevertheless, despite her now peaceful life, Clarissa calls the airport dispatcher demanding her husband’s flight information, repeatedly, when he was on duty. This behavior leads to the reprimand of her husband.

YOUNG BERRIES is about a child in a sanatorium for sickly children. She is attacked in the park, but, due to her scream she is not harmed. However, she is harassed and targeted by one of the boys. A boy she grew to love. After she left the sanatorium, this boy tormented her at home, over the phone—using her love for his amusement.

My Take:

THERE ONCE LIVED A GIRL WHO SEDUCED HER SISTER’S HUSBAND, AND HE HANGED HIMSELF by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya translated by Anna Summers is a collection of dark “love” stories that will leave you understanding these things that on the surface can not be understood.

Ludmilla Petrushevskaya writes about her home country of Russia, and she immerses the reader in the life of her characters. Although you maybe know where one story is going, you will still read on. It’s simply something you must see to the end.

Book Review: FINAL RESORT by Dana Mentink

Publisher: Love Inspired Suspense  

Published: February 5, 2013

Format: Paperback (224 pages)      

ISBN: 9780373445264         

Series: Treasure Seekers

Origin: Publisher through NetGalley (egalley)

***Though the publisher provides the free book, I offer the opinion.***

My Look:

Ava Stanton has suffered too much loss in her life, from losing her mother to suicide—while she was still in her young teen years, and at the same time, losing her healthy father to an accident—leaving him a paraplegic with a host of health issues.  Now, as an adult, Ava faces the soon-to-be loss of her impoverished, winter resort home, Whisper Mountain.  

Through all of this turmoil, Ava has known only one constant in her life, her mother’s brother, Uncle Paul.  

She can remember her parent’s arguing over Uncle Paul, and Ava’s dad still carries a firm dislike for this man.  It wasn’t that Ava was ignorant to Uncle Paul’s wayward nature of get rich quick schemes, owing and borrowing money from everyone and anyone, and the not-so-honest way he will manipulate things toward his favor; she knew his exploits quite well.  However, his optimism and infectious smile was something Ava could always count on and that meant the world to her. 

So, why was she on a deserted mountain road of the winter wonderland that she once called home, despite the winter storm warnings?   Ava was here at Uncle Paul’s request, of course. His message about his “purl”, although he used that term about everything he ever chased.

Finally, Uncle Paul arrived, but he wasn’t himself.  

Ava’s selling the resort really saddened him, but she tried to get him to understand.  She can’t afford to keep it.  However, yet again, he’s coming into money.  It’s big this time.  Not wanting to hurt him, she simple restated that she had to sell.  Maybe since it was worth more in painful memories than cash, she figured he’d understand.  

Suddenly, a snowmobile arrives on scene.  His face was hidden, but his intention was clear. Someone was about to run them down! Uncle Paul pushed Ava out of its path, but Uncle Paul didn’t get away.  

Meanwhile, Luca Gage left his sister and was skiing toward old memories of a high school crush, when he saw a snowmobile driving at increasing speed toward a couple.  The woman landed with a thud and the man was abducted.  There was only one he could save, and his gut knew exactly who it was.  

Once skiing these slopes with pure abandon, she became different and weighted with loss and pain.  It doesn’t seem her pain ever stopped.  Luca knew her former home was on the market, and he was charged with checking into a possible purchase for his father.  Since the Gage property, Gold Summit, was next to Whisper Mountain to acquire it would make sense. However, from what he knew, it would take a whole lot of money just for modernization.   

He was not going to let her die up here on this mountain.  

Both of them were on thin ice, now, and as it breaks, his emotions reheat, cracking his heart’s protective barrier.    

 

My Take:

FINAL RESORT is a thrilling ride of suspense and romance! 

Luca Gage is a hero whose heart hunts for the treasure that he’s never found, as he finds worldly treasures he doesn’t need.  His strong faith brings him through, and he believes enough for two.

Ava Stanton is a strong woman, but to her, prayers aren’t answered and bad things still happen.    Faith doesn’t mean much to her, and to find someone who actually still believes is disorienting.  

In fact, she sometimes sees the world in have and have not, and the Stantons were always on the have not list.

Dana Mentink’s hero and heroine are opposites in life, faith and socioeconomic factors, but their personalities complement.  His family brought him stability while her unstable family brought challenges to bear. Abandonment left her brokenhearted, and she’s not prepared for love. However, she must learn to ask for and accept help, but he must accept her need to do things herself.  Can they make it work?     

FINAL RESORT by Dana Mentink is a standalone title.  However,  you’ll want to read more of this author’s titles including  DANGEROUS MELODY (Love Inspired Suspense 2012), LOST LEGACY (Love Inspired Suspense 2012), ESCAPE FROM THE BADLANDS (Love Inspired Suspense (2012), BURIED TRUTH (Love Inspired Suspense 2011), TURBULENCE (Steeple Hill 2011), and BETRAYAL IN THE BADLANDS (Steeple Hill 2010). Or check out other books by this author!